At a 12-step meeting last Sunday a man talks about getting angry when others take "his" parking space at work.
It seems that he has a certain place he likes to park. It's under a tree, which is nice in the Arizona summer.
However, there are times when others arrive before him and take the spot. And that irritates him. He wants feedback about how to deal with this. Because others should know that's his parking place.
And those in the meeting give it to him straight up. What most of them point out is that the parking places belong to whoever gets there first. Unless one owns the parking lot it's first come, first served.
Part of my growing up in recovery was to realize that I'm not the center of the universe. That others on the planet also think they're important - which they are. Everyone has the same rights that I do.
If we look more closely at our behavior in these situations we'll find that our ego is usually the culprit. I'm special. I'm different. I'm cool. Don't they know who I am?
Whatever our ego driven thinking is, it only tends to separate us from our fellow human beings. And create suffering for us.
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